A few days ago I checked some pricing stats for a client. One of the analyses that I did was a review of quarterly differences in the sold prices of homes, to see if there was a decline trend or not. For the specific neighborhood I checked, there was a definite decline in the average sold price as well as the average price per sq ft.
Seeing that trend for a neighborhood, I decided to perform an analysis by county to see how different or alike that review might be. I checked the single-family home stats for three counties: Franklin, Delaware and Union County.
Even I – who is known to be a statistics-type person – was surprised at the results!
Franklin County: The average price increased each quarter as did the price per square foot! And sellers are obtaining pretty close to their list price. The 3rd Qtr price was UP 11% vs the 1st Qtr.
- 1st Qtr: 2706 homes sold; $155,493 avg price equaling 96% of list price; $95/sq ft.
- 2nd Qtr: 3781 homes sold; $169,805 avg price equaling 97% of list price; $100/sq ft.
- 3rd Qtr: 3482 homes sold; $172,874 avg price equaling 96% of list price; $101/sq ft.
Delaware County: More ups and downs than Franklin County, but this county has many new housing developments and high inventories. Even so, there were 26% more homes sold in the 3rd Qtr vs the 1st Qtr and little difference in the $/sq ft. The average price declined only 3% from the 2nd Qtr. Again sellers were getting pretty close to asking price. Generally, positive news as well.
- 1st Qtr: 483 homes sold; $299,484 avg price equaling 96% of list price; $119/sq ft.
- 2nd Qtr: 691 homes sold; $307,596 avg price equaling 97% of list price; $121/sq ft.
- 3rd Qtr: 609 homes sold; $297,025 avg price equaling 97% of list price; $118/sq ft.
Union County: As with Delaware County, the 2nd Qtr was the strongest, although the same number of homes were sold in the 3rd Qtr. Average price and $/sq ft matched the 1st Qtr. Again sellers are getting close to list price.
- 1st Qtr: 109 homes sold; $191,317 avg price equaling 99% of list price; $96/sq ft.
- 2nd Qtr: 171 homes sold; $198,577 avg price equaling 97% of list price; $101/sq ft.
- 3rd Qtr: 172 homes sold; $191,135 avg price equaling 96% of list price; $96/sq ft.
Given the national news media hype, this review is another strong indicator that the local central Ohio market just doesn’t match the bubble markets (Florida, California). (see 5-Year Delaware County average home prices for more info)
Now, the piece of information missing in this review is the high level of inventory available for sale in the area. There are hundreds of such homes. Those sellers who are willing to price AT MARKET are getting their homes sold, while sellers who priced based on what they WANT to sell for are languishing.
While location-location-location used to be the real estate mantra, it’s now PRICE/CONDITION. A home must be in top condition and priced right in order to get it sold.
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Elaine Reese
614-825-8860Real Living HER379 W Olentangy StPowell Ohio 43065
Assisting home sellers and buyers throughout Central Ohio in achieving their dreams.
2 responses so far ↓
frankschulteladbeck // 10/31/2007 at 6:09 am |
This trend is becoming common in many parts of the country. Houston had a 2% increase in home prices, but we just had an article in the newspaper here, where the headline and the front page portion focused on the difficulty to sell. The inside copy dealt with the fact that sellers should price to market in order to sell quickly. Negative news has led to a downturn in homes sold in the nation, but it has also led to fewer affordable housing being built, particularly closer to the areas where they work.
My hope is that data such as that mentioned in your post would be the front page news, before dealing with the negative. The negative is out there, but it is not the entire story.
elainereese // 10/31/2007 at 8:18 pm |
The media hype has been ridiculous and they scrounge up some so-called “expert”, who has never sold a house, who is willing to put the spin on the story that the reporter wants to portray. They don’t want to have FACTS ruin the power of their article.
I think it was Walter Cronkite who said that the difference in the news media of today vs before is that before they REPORTED the news. Today the media MAKES the news. That’s an important difference and it’s all done for ratings! In the meantime, they’re ruining people’s lives.